Merry Easter...
Semiramis (later called Ishtar) was married to the Grandson of Noah, Cush. And this is where the pagan roots of this celebration ultimately begin.
Semiramis and Cush had a kid, which they name Nimrod...
Semiramis pretty much created a religion around herself and family. She began with her own birth story, which is quite convoluted, she was "miraculously conceived" and also she is from an egg delivered to her mother from the moon... (Ishtar, as Semiramis later became known, is a fertility goddess and as a fertility goddess, Ishtar loved rabbits and made them a central theme of her worship).
Most of it begins when Cush dies and Nimrod marries his mother and becomes a "great king" and nearly worshiped as a semi-god/man, later Nimrod is killed by an enemy, cut up and his parts are scattered, Semiramis tries to gather the parts up, but couldn't find that most important reproductive bit and because of that Nimrod could not be resurrected, thus he ascends to heaven and now is called Baal, the sun god..., Sometime around about this time Semiramis began to call herself Ishtar (remember this word is pronounced Easter) then she has a child that is "miraculously conceived" by the rays of the sun (Baal) which she names Tammuz...
Tammuz, the supposed miraculously conceived son of Baal (Nimrod) was killed by a wild pig and "went up to his father"... Ishtar (Now worshiped as "Mother of God and Queen of Heaven") decreed that every year there would be a 40 day period of mourning until the day of his death/resurrection/ascendance to heaven, during that time no meat would be eaten, but on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, they would celebrate her son's death, resurrection and consequent delivery to the heavens with his father by eating pig, the animal that killed him... She taught that upon his death his blood fell onto an evergreen sapling causing it to grow to a full-grown tree overnight, this caused the evergreen tree to be sacred to this new burgeoning religion (not important to Easter, but important to another ritual at a different time of the year)...
Ishtar's Sunday was celebrated with stories of rabbits and eggs (colored by the blood of Tammuz), and those who worshiped Baal/Tammuz (represented by burning candles/fires as "Father, Son, and Spirit", the two were with the worshipers in 'spirit'..) ate what we would now call "hot cross buns" with the sacred "t" upon them and while contemplating that Baal and Tammuz were with them in spirit they would make a "t" over their hearts....
Happy Ishtar's Sunday!
Semiramis (later called Ishtar) was married to the Grandson of Noah, Cush. And this is where the pagan roots of this celebration ultimately begin.
Semiramis and Cush had a kid, which they name Nimrod...
Semiramis pretty much created a religion around herself and family. She began with her own birth story, which is quite convoluted, she was "miraculously conceived" and also she is from an egg delivered to her mother from the moon... (Ishtar, as Semiramis later became known, is a fertility goddess and as a fertility goddess, Ishtar loved rabbits and made them a central theme of her worship).
Most of it begins when Cush dies and Nimrod marries his mother and becomes a "great king" and nearly worshiped as a semi-god/man, later Nimrod is killed by an enemy, cut up and his parts are scattered, Semiramis tries to gather the parts up, but couldn't find that most important reproductive bit and because of that Nimrod could not be resurrected, thus he ascends to heaven and now is called Baal, the sun god..., Sometime around about this time Semiramis began to call herself Ishtar (remember this word is pronounced Easter) then she has a child that is "miraculously conceived" by the rays of the sun (Baal) which she names Tammuz...
Tammuz, the supposed miraculously conceived son of Baal (Nimrod) was killed by a wild pig and "went up to his father"... Ishtar (Now worshiped as "Mother of God and Queen of Heaven") decreed that every year there would be a 40 day period of mourning until the day of his death/resurrection/ascendance to heaven, during that time no meat would be eaten, but on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, they would celebrate her son's death, resurrection and consequent delivery to the heavens with his father by eating pig, the animal that killed him... She taught that upon his death his blood fell onto an evergreen sapling causing it to grow to a full-grown tree overnight, this caused the evergreen tree to be sacred to this new burgeoning religion (not important to Easter, but important to another ritual at a different time of the year)...
Ishtar's Sunday was celebrated with stories of rabbits and eggs (colored by the blood of Tammuz), and those who worshiped Baal/Tammuz (represented by burning candles/fires as "Father, Son, and Spirit", the two were with the worshipers in 'spirit'..) ate what we would now call "hot cross buns" with the sacred "t" upon them and while contemplating that Baal and Tammuz were with them in spirit they would make a "t" over their hearts....
Happy Ishtar's Sunday!